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College, Computer, Growing Up, Memories, Poems, Short Story, Writing
A few weeks ago we got a new computer. I decided it was time to put all of our documents, music and pictures in one place instead of having them spread across a few old laptops. I also wanted to get all of my writing together and back it all up.
Last week’s project was to go into the basement, search through a series of boxes labelled “Desk” and find those old floppy disks from the first computer we ever had.
Remember these? Oh, I guess I’m aging myself.
My goal was to use a USB/floppy drive I found to transfer all of those old writings onto the new computer. Well, I must have had this thought before, because instead of finding floppies I found CDs with nicely printed labels “Arlene’s Writing – Disk 1”, “Arlene’s Writing – Disk 2,” and so on.
I popped a CD in and not only did they have what I was looking for, but there were stories and poems I don’t even remember writing. I even found poems I had handwritten in a notebook (that is also somewhere in my basement) from when I was like 12 or 13. It was all organized: 1980s, College, 1990s, etc.
I have to admit some of the poems were bad and I’m not self-doubting and that’s not my inner critic saying that. But because I had forgotten I’d written them, I was able to read them objectively and some really stunk! But, to my (pleasant) surprise, some were really good.
Some of the poems were from the years of awakening, when my eyes were opened to a reality I had not known in my naive youth. Going off to college taught me more than what I found in my textbooks, as it should have. I had new experiences and a new sense of freedom and independence. I learned about sexism, classism, violence, racism, homophobia, love, loss and so much more. And I wrote all about it in vivid and colorful ways. I don’t remember using language like that! And some of my poems even made me blush.
Smiley by Halloween cat
I laughed at myself knowing I probably would not write those types of poems today, but kind of proud of myself for writing them too. Maybe I didn’t think anyone would read them or maybe I just cared a lot less if they did.
Photo from Flickr, ScottD_Arch (revised)
Now, my plan is to go through all the poems and stories to see what’s good as is, what stories can be revised or improved upon and what’s worth sharing or maybe even entering into contests. This should be a fun project! A kind of walk down memory lane, through writing.
Have you ever reviewed your work or writing after not seeing if for a while? How did it make you feel? Did you laugh, cry, feel embarrassed or proud?
During my spring cleaning, I found some pieces I wrote for my undergrad creative writing course years (and years…) ago. Despite my apparent love of adverbs, they weren’t half bad. Then again, they weren’t half good either. 😉
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I love your perspective, half bad=half good and visa versa. I probably won’t share most of what I found with anyone and that’s okay. I put pen to paper and added to my “million words,” so they count (even if just to me) 🙂
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There’s just something about “cleaning out a closet.” It always ends up being a longer project than you think because you sit and look at memories.
Somewhere, I have the first poem I remember keeping. I thought it was stellar. I think I was in 7th grade. Very rhymey! Like, “White and cold here comes the snow, and from the north the wind doth blow…” Yes. Doth. Haha. We’ve come a long way, Baby!
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I love that you found your poem from such a young age!!! You should frame it. It’s you at the starting line and look how far you’ve come. That’s great! (I tried to come up with a witty response using ‘doth’ but I just couldn’t) 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
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I’ll have to dig around for it. I remember a girl in my class stole it from me because she liked it so much! I had to fight to get that poem back!
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That’s so fun that you found all your old writing. I love reading things from the past (the good and the bad–it’s part of you, and truly is a treasure). Good luck with your next project of getting all the good stuff onto your new computer. Sounds like a lot of work…but worth it.
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Thanks Char. It is fun and I don’t think it will be too big of a project since they were cataloged on the CDs. I’m glad I had already done that! I do hope to find a gem in there though.
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Reading old journals is a real journey back in time for me!
More so about how far I’ve come emotionally than the actual writing…
Still, a good reminder to take a peek back and see where we’ve been 😉
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I have such a collection of handwritten journals. I keep telling myself that one day I’ll read through them all, but that seems more and more like a daunting task because I’ve fill so many now. Still, one day, it would be fun to take that journey!
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I love it when I find old stuff I have forgotten. Some stinks, sure, but sometimes I’m like Ha! I wrote that!
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Yes, “Ha” is exactly how I felt at times. Thanks Katie, that made me laugh!
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Re-reading old stuff is bittersweet for me. I am, however, always thrilled to see how much I have improved over time. Not just with my writing, but in my approach to writing, my lifestuff, my goals, and my journey. At least I’m not regressing or spinning my wheels.
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I admit there were a few pieces that I glossed over not wanting to remember the sad or negative times. But I think seeing our progress in our writing and in our life is pretty great.
I did a dream journal once over a period of a few months as I read through a dream book. Part of the process was reading it over at the end and identifying patterns, especially those I needed to work on. I think it would be the same in reading through my regular journals. I guess I just have to force myself to sit down and read through them at some point and then do it again in 5 years, and in 5 more years and so on. That would give me perspective on growth.
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None of my old journals or writings have survived the multitude of moves I’ve made over the years. From what I can remember of them, many would make me laugh today or cringe, knowing what I do now. I do have my high school year books, though, and sometimes it’s fun to go back and see what friends wrote then. I’m always amazed at how much I’ve forgotten—some of the “inside jokes” leave me stumped today!
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Ooh, I’d be sad if I lost my journals. Even if I never read them, just knowing I have them means something. We don’t tend to keep things, but I’ve made sure to keep track of those journals. When we moved to this house, I even found that very first one my mom gave me. You remember those books with the little lock on the cover? I’d only written a few pages worth, but still got it 🙂
As for year books though, I don’t have any. Last summer at my parent’s house I found one and I have to admit I as I looked at those messages next to the pictures “Friends 4-eva” or “Sis-4-life” (Yeah we wrote it like that, and that was before texting), I looked at those pictures and for the life of me couldn’t remember most of them. Yikes, I felt old! 🙂
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What a goldmine to find all that old writing … and organized. Wish I could say the same. I wrote two novels back in the late 80’s & early 90’s. They are printed out only once in dot matrix and hiding in a closet. I have no other copies of them, and I haven’t looked at them in 20 years. Too afraid. Heh. Thanks for sharing about your fun discovery and how it made you feel.
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Funny thing Lori, I was just reading your blog when you were reading mine and your comment popped up 🙂 Nice to meet you!
As I continue to go through the old writing, I realize that there are some missing. I’ll have to take another trip into the basement and find those floppy disks after all. But still, I saved a lot of time by having most of them on CD.
You should totally scan those pages into digital format. You know, just for fun. You never know, they may be better than you think!
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I still remember the giant floppy disks. 😉 Smart move getting them all in one place on one laptop. It’s also good idea to back them up to a google drive or i cloud too. Just in case something ever happens to your laptop or those cds. 🙂 It’s so cool to walk back through old writing because every you you’ve been is still alive on that page.
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